47

Since these things have now been said by me in a digression to your God-honored holiness, I beseech you to grant me pardon and correction for them, whether because they were spoken improperly, or not well understood, with the good-loving affection and imitation of fatherly compassion; and to commend me to Christ our God, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glorified unto the ages of ages. Amen.

SCHOLIA. a. It is absurd, he says, for the one will to be divided. For natural

kinship compels this; and for one half to be given to the one nature, and the rest to the other nature; and thus to alienate Christ from God and from us, as not having a composite will.

b. That the Fathers dogmatized on the difference and the union against confusion and the division of equal honor with it.

c. Fr. Nilus. It is hypostatic, but in our case, irrational, for which reason God became man, in order to restore man; having delivered from this all who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives; that is, all who, fearing pain, procured for themselves pleasure, the mother of pain; the author of corruption; the procurer and solicitor of death.

COPY

Of a letter written to the most holy bishop lord Nicander, by Maximus among the saints, concerning the two energies in Christ.

You yourself, O God-honored and all-blessed Father, who bears a name befitting your courage, the most sacred victory over all the enemies who war, secretly or openly, against the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of God; and the unfading crown, ever-flourishing for His sake with the gifts and energies of the Spirit, having already received in hope from Him, and having acquired as if in your hands the blessed enjoyment of that which is by nature desirable, through perfect consent to it; and from this, clearly, if any (92) other man, delighting in the Lord Himself—how is it ever, and in what way, do you deign to attach this, even by a mere word, let alone to offer it through your precious and blessed letters to one who is inactive and cowardly, and has not at all been taught to move, up to now, for God’s battle-line and for His holy war fought on His behalf, the practical powers of the mind, or the thoughts of the soul, like so many fingers of the hands, and thereby to rout nobly those who exalt themselves against the words and dogmas of the Lord Almighty; and to drive them out of the good land, which is our Lord and God Himself, and the orthodox faith which is the same thing; the truly firm seat and constitution of pious dogmas; and the ever-flowing fruitfulness and nature of the virtues. But you have done this in imitation of Christ; so that, having shown clearly to me—who am willfully separated from Him, and who intentionally inhabit, as a habit, a certain land of wickedness far from Him, and who feed the passions of dishonor, like swine, through my activity—a good-loving self-emptying, and having demonstrated the power of your inherent divine accomplishments by the greatness of your condescension, you might rouse me to a desire for this, and to a certain holy and blessed zeal,

47

Τούτων μοι παρεκβατικῶς νῦν λελεγμένων πρός τήν σήν θεοτίμητον ἀγιστείαν, παρακαλῶ τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς, ἤ μή προσηκόντως ῥηθεῖσιν, ἤ μή νοηθεῖσι καλῶς, συγγνώμην ὁμοῦ καί διόρθωσίν μοι χαρίσασθαι, φιλαγάθῳ πατρικῆς εὐσπλαχνίας στοργῇ καί μιμήσει· καί Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ με παραθέσθαι, τῷ σύν Πατρί καί Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ δοξαζομένῳ εἰς τούς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α´. Ἄτοπον, φησί, τό ἕν θέλημα μερίζεσθαι. Τοῦτο γάρ ἀναγκάζει ἡ φυσική

συγγένεια· καί τό μέν ἥμισυ τῇ μιᾷ, τό δέ λοιπόν τῇ λοιπῇ φύσει δίδοσθαι· καί οὕτως ἀλλοτριοῦν τόν Χριστόν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί ἡμῶν, ὡς οὐκ ἐχόντων σύνθετον θέλημα.

β´. Ὅτι τήν διαφοράν, καί τήν ἕνωσιν οἱ Πατέρες κατά τῆς συγχύσεως, καί τῆς ὁμοτίμου αὐτῆ διαιρέσεως ἐδογμάτισαν.

γ´. Fr. Ὁ Νεῖλος. Ἔστιν ὑποστατική, ἀλλ᾿ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἡ παράλογος, δι᾿ ἥν ἄνθρωπος ὁ Θεός, ἵν᾿ ἐπανασώσῃ τόν ἄνθρωπον· ἀπαλλάξας ταύτης, ὅσοι φόβῳ θανάτου διά παντός τοῦ ζῇν ἔνοχοι ἦσαν δουλείας· ἤγουν ὅσοι φοβούμενοι τήν ὀδύνην, τήν ἠδονήν περιεποιοῦντο, τήν μητέρα τῆς ὀδύνης· τήν τῆς φθορᾶς ἀρχηγόν· τήν τοῦ θανάτου προαγωγόν καί προμνήστριαν.

ΙΣΟΝ

Ἐπιστολῆς γενομένης πρός τόν ἁγιώτατον ἐπίσκοπον κύριον Νίκανδρον, παρά τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Μαξίμου, περί τῶν δύο ἐν Χριστῷ ἐνεργειῶν.

Αὐτός, θεοτίμητε καί παμμακάριε Πάτερ, φερωνύμως ἔχων μετά τῆς ἀνδρείας, τήν

κατά πάντων ἀφανῶς, ἤ φανερῶς τήν ἁγίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολικήν καί ἀποστολικήν Ἐκκλησίαν πολεμούντων ἐχθρῶν ἱερωτάτην νίκην· καί τόν ὑπέρ αὐτοῦ ἀειθαλῆ τοῖς χαρίσμασι, καί ταῖς ἐνεργείαις τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀμαράντινον στέφανον, ἤδη κατ᾿ ἐλπίδας λαβών παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ, καί ὡς ἐν χερσί κτησάμενος τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἐφετοῦ, διά τῆς πρός αὐτό τελείας συννεύσεως τήν μακαρίαν ἀπόλαυσιν· κἀκ τούτου σαφῶς, εἰ καί τις (92) ἄλλος, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου κατατρυφῶν, πῶς ποτε, καί τίνι τρόπῳ ταύτην προσάπτειν, κἄν λόγῳ ψιλῷ, μή τί γε διά τιμίων σου καί μακαρίων προσάγειν καταδέχῃ γραμμάτων τῷ ἀδρανεῖ καί δειλῷ, καί μηδόλως εἰς παράταξιν Θεοῦ, καί τόν αὐτοῦ καί ὑπέρ αὐτοῦ, ἅγιον πόλεμον, τάς τοῦ νοῦ πρακτικάς δυνάμεις, ἤ τούς κατά ψυχήν ὡσεί τινας δακτύλους χειρῶν, λογισμούς, μέχρι καί νῦν δεδιδαγμένῳ κινεῖν, καί ταύτῃ τροποῦσθαι γενναίως τούς κατέναντι Κυρίου παντοκράτορος ῥήμασί τε καί δόγμασιν ἐπαιρομένους· καί τῆς ἀγαθῆς γῆς ἐξελαύνειν, ἥτις ἐστίν αὐτός ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καί Θεός, καί ἡ ταυτόν ὀρθόδοξος πίστις· ἡ ὄντως παγία τῶν εὐσεβῶν δογμάτων ἕδρα καί σύστασις· καί τῶν ἀρετῶν ἡ ἀένναος καρπογονία καί φύσις. Ἀλλά τοῦτο χριστομιμήτως πεποίηκας· ἵνα τήν τούτου προδήλως εἰς ἐμέ, τόν γνωμικῶς αὐτοῦ διεστηκότα, καί τήν μακράν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τῆς κακίας ὥσπερ τινά χώραν ἕξιν, ἐμπροθέτως οἰκοῦντα, καί τά πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας καθάπερ χοίρους δι᾿ ἐνεργείας ἐκτρέφοντα, φιλάγαθον ἐπιδειξάμενος κένωσιν, καί τῶν ἐνόντων σοι θείων κατορθωμάτων τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συγκαταβάσεως ὑποδείξας τήν δύναμιν, εἰς ἔφεσιν ταύτης ἐγείρῃς, καί πρός ἱερόν τινα καί μακάριον ζῆλον,